Biftek with Mushrooms, Onions and Potatoes

Czech Version of Minute Steak

Biftek is a Czech version of “minute stake” that is cooked in a frying pan. "Biftek" comes from French "le biftek", which is borrowed from the English "beefsteak", while the English "beef" is originally from the French "le bœuf" and Czech cooks adopted French version “Biftek. What a linguistic mess, ne se pas?

This meal is relatively fast and simple; by the time potatoes are cooked the meat, onions and mushrooms are done as well and as a bonus all in just one frying pan.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)
1 large sirloin steak cut in 2 equal pieces
1 medium onion, peeled
Cremini mushrooms, 8 – 12
Salt and Pepper
Hungarian paprika
Flour
4 medium Red potatoes
Oil

Butter

Instruction

Trim the steak of extra fat and membranes, pound the steak with meat mallet or heavy frying pan till about 1/4” thin, season with salt, pepper and paprika. Lightly dredge in flour and set aside. Trim mushrooms leaving only about 1/2” of stem and cut in half. Cut onion in half and cut into thin slices.

Boil potatoes is lightly salted water till tender, about 15 minutes from time they start to boil. While the potatoes are cooking heat large heavy frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil, add onions and cook while stirring until they start to turn color. Push on side of pan and place mushrooms cut side down in frying pan making sure that there is a coat of oil on bottom.  When nicely golden move mushrooms to the side next to onions. Add more oil if needed and start frying the steak for about 3 minutes. Turn over and repeat. If the steak is 1/4” thick it takes about 5 minutes to cook to medium well done.

Serve on preheated plates with mushrooms and onions on top and potatoes drizzled with butter on side.

Hungarian Gulyás (Goulash)

Goulash is a stew or soup made with meat, vegetables andpotatoes. In Hungary, it is lot closer to soup then a stew and it doesn’tcontain tomatoes. There are many versions in former states of AustrianHungarian Empire. In Czech Republic and Slovakia the liquid base is choppedtomatoes and it is served with either bread or BreadDumplings, in Austria it is served with rye bread and in Northern Italywith spaetzle or gnocchi. However, one ingredient that is constant right acrosswhole former Empire is paprika, and lots of it. Also, in Czech version, thereare as many onions as there is meat, by weight, and green and/or red peppersare always included and potatoes are seldom cooked in goulash itself but ratheron side if used as side dish.

As is the case with every national dish there are manyregional varieties. Szeged goulash is made with pork, some potatoes are replaced with sauerkraut and sour cream is added at the end of cooking. Znojemský(Moravian) Goulash is made with beef, onions, peppers and chopped pickles.In short, there are as many varieties as there are regions. In this post I willdeal with a basic beef goulash using tomatoes and with potatoes on the side.

Ingredients

1 Lb. stewing beef
1 Lb. onions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs. Hungarian paprika
1 tsp. caraway seeds
2 green and 2 red peppers, roughly chopped
4 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and roughly chopped
Tbs. lard or vegetable oil
2 Tbs. flour
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper (optional)

 Place flour and beef inside plastic bag, close it and shakethe beef until all sides are evenly coated with flour. Shake off all excessflour and set aside.

Heat up lard or oil in heavy pan or Dutch oven on high heat.Place the beef cubes in lard, leaving space in between, and brown on all sides.Remove beef to bowl and set aside. The beef will release some juice.
Pour off the lard leaving just a thin coat on the bottom. Lowerthe heat to medium, drop in the onions and garlic and cook till light goldenbrown.
Off the heat sprinkle the paprika and caraway seeds on topand then mix until onions are evenly coated.
Put back on medium heat, add peppers and tomatoes with itsjuices, stir and bring to simmer.
Put back the beef with collected juice, bay leaf and blackpepper. Bring back to simmer on medium high, lower the heat to low and simmer,stirring and scraping the bottom every 15 minutes or so.
Braise for 3 hours making sure that there is enough liquid. Iftoo dry add some liquid such as beer, wine or stock.
Otheroption is to cook the goulash in the 350 °F oven.10 minutes before serving add marjoram and adjust seasoning(salt, cayenne pepper).
Serve in preheated shallow bowl with potatoes, pasta, breaddumplings or just slices of rye bread.
As is the case with many stews, this goulash taste betterwhen reheated next day and when served with a different side you end up with a new meal.

Beef is already coated in flour.

Meat is browned, onions and garlic are cooked and paprikaand caraway seeds are mixed in.

Peppers, tomatoes with its juice are added and brought backto simmer.

Beef is returned to pot with bay leaves, pot is covered and slowlybraised for 3 hours.

Kebab – Summer Delight on a Skewer

Kebab is such versatile dish that almost every region in the world has their own version. I had prepared Shish Kebab using small and larger pieces of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, rabbit, seafood and vegetable and even ground meat (lamb, pork, veal or beef) in a dish called Ćevapčići. Recipe for my version is here.

As usual, Wikipedia has detailed article on Kebabs from around the world.

Last week I have prepared 2 versions of Kebab.

First one was inspired by Chinese cuisine: all beef kebab with Char Siu sauce and fried rice with scapes, yellow beans and carrots. The kebab was grilled on BBQ on high heat, turned every 2 minutes for total of 5 minutes for medium done.

Second was more elaborate, a typical Western take on Shish Kebab. I have alternated slices of pork tenderloin, smoked & cooked bacon, onion, red pepper and yellow zucchini (squash). Each skewer had 5 pieces of meat and 4 of each other ingredients and was basted by hickory barbecue sauce. I grilled kebabs on direct medium low heat with BBQ lid closed, turning every 3 minutes for total 8 minutes. It was perfect: tender, juicy and right amount of heat and served on bed of shredded Napa cabbage with bowl of steamed rice.

One tip: I used flat bamboo skewers. These are absolutely ideal because they do not allow anything that is skewered to move or rotate. They are worth to look for. I bought mine in Dollar Store, really inexpensive. Also, I wrapped exposed end of bamboo in few wraps of aluminum foil to prevent burning. This way you can just wash and reuse them.

Steak Tartare

(Czech version)

Steak Tartare is one of the biggest delights for a true carnivore like me. It is a raw ground beef (tenderloin or sirloin) combined with other ingredients and served on toast. This is a very simple and simplistic description. What you put in meat mixture and how much is a personal choice so I will just give a basic guideline.

Steak Tartar was named after Tatar tribe of medieval Central Asia. Wikipedia has a great article on history and development of this gourmet dish.

I can not emphasize enough how important fresh meat and eggs are in this dish. Check your eggs for freshness by using water test method or just check the date on egg carton. Meat has to be super fresh and any membranes or sinew must be removed, all you want is just red meat and nothing else. Of course, you must be the one to grind the meat using super clean and cooled grinder. I put my meat (cut into cubes) together with meat grinder parts and mixing bowl, in the freezer for about half an hour before grinding. You want to keep the Tartar as cold as possible from preparation to serving.

Ingredients

3/4 lb Ground beef tenderloin or sirloin (see note above)

1 Egg yolk, raw

1 tsp. Capers, chopped

1 Tbs. Onion, chopped

1 tsp. Parsley, chopped

1 tsp. Hungarian hot paprika

1/2 tsp. Black pepper, freshly ground

1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. Ketchup

3 Anchovies, creamed

(Adjust amounts to your personal taste)

8 slices toasted rye bread, crust removed

2 cloves garlic, peeled

Instructions

Mix all above ingredients (except toasts and garlic J) in chilled stainless steel, ceramic or glass bowl using 2 forks till all ingredients are well combined. Do not mix with your hands, you want to keep the mixture as cold as possible. When done, transfer to chilled serving bowl or plate together with a toasted rye bread and garlic.

Rub garlic on one side of toast and spread tartar on same side. Best beverage to accompany this great meal is original Pilsner Urquell, of course.

Beef Rouladen (Hovězí Ptáčky)

As far as I know most European country has a version of this meal. In some places pork is used but mostly very thin piece of beef roast is the traditional cut.

The filling varies from place to place, not only between countries. In North Bohemia traditional filling is smoked bacon, sausage, onions, hard boiled egg and pickle. This time I made half sized version but recipe is for a full sized Rouladen.

Ingredients:

Rouladen

4 slices of rouladen beef (see note bellow)

4” piece of Polish Kielbasa, skin removed and cut into 4 pieces, lengthwise

1 hard boiled egg, quartered

4 pickles, cut in half, lengthwise

4 slices smoked and pre-cooked bacon or ham

1/2 chopped onion

Dijon mustard

Hungarian Paprika

Black pepper and salt

Note: Rouladen beef is cut from rump or round roast and is about 1/4” thick and about 6” wide and 10” long and is tenderized with mallet. This makes the beef quite larger and tender.

Sauce

2 slices smoked bacon, chopped fine

1/2 chopped onion

Dijon mustard

Hungarian Paprika

Black pepper and salt

1/2 cup of red wine or Marsala

Direction:

Place beef on cutting board with wider end closer to you.

Spread about 1 Tbs. of mustard on front half ob beef and season with paprika, pepper and salt.

Place bacon or ham on top, followed by sausage, pickle, onions and egg.

Make sure that all toppings, except bacon, are on a nice pile. Start rolling away from you. After 1 and 1/2 turns fold the sides over to enclose the filling and finish rolling. Make sure the roll is tight. Secure with butchers twine around and across.

This time I did half size rolls.

Heat frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil and 1 Tbs. of butter on medium high. Brown rolls on all sides and set aside. Do not crowd in pan.

When all rolls are browned discard the oil and butter. Add 1 tsp. of fresh butter and chopped bacon. Brown bacon and then add onions and sauté till golden brown. Pour in wine and scrape all fond from bottom of pan. Add chopped pickles and return beef rolls into pan, bring to gentle simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Add wine as necessary if sauce is too low.

Add mustard and chopped eggs and simmer for 5 more minutes. Do not boil or mustard will become bitter.

Remove rolls from pan, cut the twine and slice into 1/2” thick slices.

Serve on preheated plate with the sauce and rice.

Dinner Ideas or My Week in Kitchen

Actually, this is what I have prepared last week J.

Last week I prepared our meals using first item that caught my eye in fridge, freezer or pantry.  Basically, I was just improvising all week long. Most meals were sort of inspired by weather. It was all over the board, one day it was sunny and in mid 20s and next day the temperature stayed in single digits.

Bok Choy and Noodle Chicken Soup

Nice comfort food. With Long Asian egg noodles it is nice vegetarian lunch. Beside bok choy I have added julienned carrots and green onions.

Pork Tenderloin Schnitzel with Potatoes.

As usual, I used Panko instead of traditional bread crumbs for that extra crunch. Served with wedge of lemon and gherkin on side. Leftover schnitzel is great with rye bread as a sandwich.

Beef Rouladen with Rice.

I will post full recipe later today.

Green Beans, Red pepper, Hot Italian Sausage and Potato Sauté.

Nice peasant meal and simplicity itself. Start boiling potatoes cut into serving pieces. Meanwhile, sauté sausage with skin removed, add green beans and julienned red pepper and drizzle little white wine over it to create some steam. Cover and cook about 3 minutes. Mixed in boiled potatoes and serve. Because the sausage is so strongly flavored you don’t really need additional herbs or spices.

Thin Crust Pizza

I used my own pizza dough and sauce. For topping it was 4 cheese mix and toped with zucchini, red pepper, sweet onions, Cremini mushrooms and hot Italian sausage. Our favorite and I bake it almost every week.

Beef Congee

It never stops amaze me what you can do with just one half cup of rice, some stock and 1-1/2 to 2 hours of your time. For topping I used shredded flank steak marinated with soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil, freshly roasted peanuts, green onions and arugula. Arugula was a substitute for coriander that I didn’t have. Congee has to be cooked very, very slowly, just a little bubbles coming up, or it will burn.

Salmon with Green Beans and Red Pepper.

This meal deserves its own post. I will post full recipe right after the Rouladen recipe.

Beef and Mushroom Stew with Dumplings

The stews are so difficult to photograph. Anyway, this is regular beef stew with about dozen quartered cremini mushrooms added just 10 minutes before plating. Short cooking time doesn’t shrink them and they don’t release all their juices. This stew had more mushrooms then meat and tasted great.

Spicy Beef & Broccoli with Rice Noodles

What a nice and relatively easy meal this is. Just marinade the beef and prepare vegetables, soak rice noodles and you are on your way. I can publish detailed recipe if you ask for it. We just love anything that has rice noodles in it. I just wish I had access to fresh rice noodles like I had back in High Park area in Toronto.

Crockpot Beef Goulash

If it wouldn’t be for me on insisting on completely caramelizing 3 large onions, this meal would need only about 10 minutes of work before slow cooker takes over. To slowly caramelize that many onions takes about half an hour but, is it ever worth it! This recipe is quite simple.

Since I was planning on leftovers for freezing I used:

Ingredients:

3 Lb of beef shank with bones and marrow

3 large or 5 medium onions, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 Tbs. sweet Hungarian paprika

1 Tbs. hot Hungarian paprika

1 cup dry red wine

1 24 oz. can crushed tomatoes

2 Tbs. oil

Flour for dusting beef

Salt and pepper

Direction:

Coat beef in flour, salt and pepper.

Put 1 cup of crushed tomatoes in Crockpot and turn on High - 4 hours.

Heat a heavy frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil on medium high heat.

Brown the beef pieces on all sides in batches and move them to Crockpot.

When all the meat is browned remove oil leaving only thin film.

Add 1 Tbs. of oil and return to heat

Cook onions on medium heat till golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Add sweet and hot paprika and cook till fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add carrots and cook till soft.

Scrape content of frying pan into Crockpot.

Deglaze the pan with wine and reduce until only about 2 Tbs. of liquid remains.

Scrape into Crock pot.

Reheat the frying pan again and bring tomatoes to boil.

Transfer tomatoes to Crockpot, turn the heat control to low 8 hours and relax.

When done, remove the bones.

As with almost any other stew, this one is better next day.

Serve with potatoes, pasta or dumplings (my preference).

Note: For richer taste you can add chopped green and red peppers and sliced cremini mushrooms about an hour before the end of cooking time.

Stir Fried Beef with Peppers

This must be one of the tastiest flank steak recipes that I have come up with. Originally I wanted to do my version of Mongolian Beef but somehow it evolved into this lightly spiced Hoisin sauce based stir fry. The meat was very tender due to fact that it was thinly sliced across the grain and marinated overnight in mix of Hoisin and Oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar, Sake and white parts of green onions.

Half an hour before serving this meal I cooked the rice in rice cooker and prepared garlic, 1” chopped ginger, julienned 1/2 red pepper, sliced 1/2 onion, 3 sliced water chestnuts and chopped green tops of scallions.

 Heat up wok, add 1 tsp. peanut oil, 1/2 tsp. sesame oil and when hot add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 1/2 minute. Add pepper, onions and water chestnuts and cook for another 1/2 minute then add the beef with marinade and stir fry till beef is slightly caramelized, about 1 minute. Serve on preheated individual plate, garnished with green tops of scallions and with steamed rice on side.

Tenderloin with Sour Cream Sauce and Dumplings

Svíčková na Smetanĕ s Knedlíkem

Just like Pork Roast, Sauerkraut and Dumplings this is a typical Sunday lunch or supper but since tenderloin is so much more expensive then pork roast it is a very special meal. Also the fact that it takes a lot more work to prepare makes it even more special. There is a lot of chopping involved but food processor or mini chopper makes it a breeze. Same goes for finishing the sauce with immersion blender. Since both cuts of beef are quite dry the meat is larded.  

Ingredients:

2 lb beef tenderloin or eye of round (not as tender)

1 large carrot, peeled and very finely chopped

1 onion, peeled and very finely chopped

Celeriac, about 1/4, peeled and very finely chopped

1 parsnip, peeled and very finely chopped

2 slices of 3/8” thick bacon fat cut into 3/8” strips

1-1/2 cups beef or chicken stock

Freshly ground:

6 Allspice

1/2 tsp. peppercorns

6 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 cup sour cream

2 Tbs. flour

Directions:

Lard the meat and tie with butcher twine every 3”.

Season with ground spices on all sides and place into a heavy, sealable bag. Put all chopped vegetables in the bag together with meat and close the bag while removing as much air as possible. Distribute the vegetables until they cover all sides of meat. Place in refrigerator and marinate overnight.

Next day, remove meat and vegetables from bag, scrape all vegetables from meat, set aside and reserve vegetables.



Beef is ready for frying pan. Dumplings are raising in the background.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Heat a frying pan on high, add 1 Tbs. of oil and brown meat on all sides, about 3 minutes on each side. Move to a roasting pan.

In the same frying pan cook reserved vegetables till lightly brown, about 10 minutes. Remove to roasting pan and place most vegetables under the meat.

Pour in the stock, cover pan and bring to boil. When stock starts to boil turn off the heat and move the pan on middle rack in oven and roast (braise), covered, for 1-1/2 hours or till internal temperature reaches 140 °F.

Meanwhile, steam the dumplings that were made ahead.

Remove meat to plate, cover with aluminum foil and let rest.

Scrape all fond (brown coating on side of roasting pan) into vegetables and pour into high sided sauce pan. Using immersion blender, liquefy the sauce till smooth.

Place sauce pan on heat and bring to simmer. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk sour cream with flour till smooth and well combined. Pour in a cup or so of hot vegetable sauce and whisk till smooth (to temper the sauce). Remove all the sour cream mixture back into sauce pan, mix and reheat. Do not bring to hard boil, just a very gentle simmer. Pour in accumulated juices from meat into sauce pan and mix.

Ladle in some sauce on preheated plate, slice the meat and place on sauce together with dumpling slices. Serve with Pilsner Urquell.

Calf Liver with Mushrooms & Spaetzle

Telecí Játra s Houbami

If you serve this meal to dedicated liver or offal hater they will lick their chops not knowing what they just ate, it is that good. After all prep is done it takes just minutes to cook and serve. I highly recommend to cook Spaetzle or pasta ahead of time, just before starting to fry liver. Spaetzle can be reheated by tossing them in butter when you are reducing wine in the sauce.

This is not lean cuisine by any stretch of imagination but once in a while I don't think it will hurt. It is rich and it is very, very good. To make it even more luxurious, just before serving I put in few drops of truffle oil. The aroma just made it very special.

Note: You can substitute thin slices of pork tenderloin in place of liver. The cooking method is exactly the same.

 

Ingredients:

§    1 lb liver, beef or calf, all membranes and veins removed and liver cut into thin slices

§    2 Tbs. grape seed or vegetable oil

§    2 cups of sliced Cremini mushrooms

§    5 shallots, sliced or 1 small onion, chopped

§    1 tsp. caraway seeds, ground

§    1 tsp. white pepper or to taste

§    1 tsp. Kosher salt

§    1 cup dry white wine

§    3/4 cup (6oz.) 35% cream

§    Nutmeg

§    2 Tbs. chopped parsley

§    Spaetzle or broad noodles

Directions:

Preheat a bowl and keep at hand. Dry liver strips with paper towel and then toss with 1 Tbs. of oil.

Cook spaetzle, toss with butter and keep warm.

Heat up stainless steel skillet and when hot add 1 Tbs. of oil. When very hot drop in liver strips in one layer and brown for about 30 seconds and then turn all strips on other side and cook another 30 seconds. With slotted spoon remove liver to preheated bowl, sprinkle generously with salt, toss and keep warm. Discard all oil from skillet, put back on medium high heat and add 1/2 Tbs. of oil. Drop in shallots and mushrooms together with caraway seeds and white pepper and sauté while scraping fond from bottom of skillet. When mushrooms are soft and shallots are translucent increase heat to high, pour in the wine and reduce wine to approximately 1/4 cup. Pour in cream, stir and reduce till sauce is thick and looks velvety. Return liver strips together with accumulated juices to skillet, sprinkle with freshly ground nutmeg and stir till liver is reheated and coated with sauce.

Serve on individual plates with spaetzle and garnished with chopped parsley.

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Penne

In Slow Cooker

Another comfort food that is better next day. This version is no-fuss, slow cooker job. I cooked tomato sauce in slow cooker for 8 hours one day, stored most of the sauce for future use and then cooked the browned ribs in 2 cups of sauce left over and served next day. The flavor was incredible. I can just imagine how this sauce with shredded short ribs meat would shine in a Lasagna. That is exactly what I will do with my leftovers.

This recipe looks more complicated in writing then it is in reality.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 Lb beef short ribs, fat trimmed

1 Tbs. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 small carrot, shredded

1-1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 Tbs. hot paprika

1/2 dry Marsala wine

3/4 cup tomato paste

1/2 tsp. dry rosemary or 1 tsp. fresh, chopped fine

1 tsp. dry basil

1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. lemon juice

Directions:

Turn the heat on a crock pot to Low - 6 hours.

Sprinkle the ribs generously with salt and pepper on all sides. Heat a heavy bottomed skillet, add olive oil and when oil starts to smoke drop in ribs and brown on all sides. When all pieces are golden brown move them to preheated crock pot.

Pour off all oil leaving just a thin film. Stir in garlic, onions, carrot and paprika and sauté till soft. Off the heat pour in Marsala and deglaze the skillet. Put back on a heat and reduce till only 1 Tbs. of Marsala remains.

Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar and rosemary and bring to boil. When boiling, turn off the heat and empty the skillet over the ribs in crock pot. The liquid should almost cover the ribs. Meanwhile cook penne till al dente. Close to end of cooking add balsamic vinegar and lemon juice and taste for seasoning.

For smoother texture and richer sauce remove ribs to serving platter or individual plates and using immersion blender liquefy the sauce.

Serve the ribs on deep platter with sauce and penne and garnish with chopped parsley.

Stir Fried Beef with Red Pepper

While organizing my freezer I came across vacuum packed piece of flank steak. The method of cooking was immediately obvious but what sort of stir fry I will make wasn’t as clear. At the end I have decided that fewer ingredients the better. “Just follow the KISS principle”, I said to myself. Since I had red pepper, asparagus, green and white onions, decision was made for me. I left the flank in a garage to slowly defrost at 4 °C. In the morning it was perfect for slicing it thin. If you are using fresh beef, place it in freezer for about 30 minutes and it will be much easier to slice. Stir frying is very quick method and meat has to be cut very thin, no more then 1/16” to 1/8”. Then it was to decide what sauce it will be cooked in. Out came my favorite and well used cook book by Gloria Bley Miller “The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook” that I bought back in 1981 when I got really serious about Oriental cooking. I still haven’t seen a better Chinese food cookbook. I refer to it all the time for methods and techniques used, there are so many! This cookbook isn’t for a beginner, you have to have a bit of experience to appreciate and use it.

Here goes the simplified recipe inspired by one in this book.

To serve 2

1/2 lb flank steak, thinly sliced

1” ginger, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper

6 asparagus spears cut in half and separated (stems and spears)

2 green onions

1/2 onion, sliced into wedges

water chestnuts, sliced

1Tbs. peanut oil

Marinade:

1 tsp. Sriracha hot sauce

1 Tbs. Sake

2Tbs. Soy sauce

1 Tbs. Corn starch

Sauce:

2Tbs oyster sauce

1 Tbs. honey

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 Tbs. sake

1 Tbs. corn starch

Mix all marinade ingredients till smooth and coat all beef slices. Cover and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Have all ingredients on hand, it will take just a few minutes from start to finish.

Drain marinade (if meat didn’t absorb it) and pat dry.

Preheat well seasoned wok till hot and add cold oil around the sides of wok. Oil should form a haze as soon as it touches sides of wok. Add slices of flank in one layer if possible and let brown (don’t move the meat) for 30 seconds. Flip over with steel spatula and stir fry for another 30 seconds. Remove the meat to preheated bowl and keep warm.

Lower the heat to medium high and sauté garlic and ginger for few seconds.

Add red pepper, asparagus stems, onion wedges and chestnuts. Stir fry for about a minute and then add asparagus tips and half of the green onions. Stir for about 1/2 a minute and increase the heat. Return meat to the wok and add the sauce. Stir till all ingredients are well coated with sauce and serve immediately. Garnish with remaining green onions. Serve with steamed rice.

Phở

If there is one completely addictive soup for all seasons it has to be Pho.

I used to simmer the stock for 5 hours till I came across this great recipe on Steamy Kitchen blog. There is no point for me to re-type it here, just click on highlighted links.
In my case I have serve His & Hers version. I love spicy condiments and lot of tripe and tendons in my Pho. Marjo prefers a more western style with meat and meat balls. This time I had to do without mint, basil and tendon that are so important with the soup. Tillsonburg is not Toronto when it comes to Asian herbs, spices and ingredients availability. Still, both versions of Pho were great, as usual J.

Hers.

His.

What a great soup!